SSD Storage

[monkey44]

Just bought a Samsung SSD ext drive for photo storage. Laptop will not recognize it. I have a couple other Samsung SSD, and it recognized it without any downloads.

I plug it into USB connection, and nothing. Does not ask me to download anything - just shows my C-drive, an internal F-drive which is the original build internal storage. It should show H-drive, or some letter drive like the others do when I plug it in. Any clues? Not very tech smart Monkey, so dumb it down please. Thanks M44

ASUS laptop, i7 Core, Win10 Pro ... 200GB free space remain. I shut it down and re-started with USB engaged. Still nothing.

Bought it from B&H photo but it is closed until 10/12 ... or would call them. 😞

[monkey44]

Thanks to you all for advice - Formatted disk, works fine. RN.net tech gurus to the rescue once again. Happy camping guys, and stay safe!! Monkey44

[Gdetrailer]

monkey44 wrote:


And, yes, an internal SSD I installed in the proper enclosure.

New INTERNAL HDs whether spinning rust or SSD come from manufacturer unformated, no partion and for Windows OS not initialized.

Pre built external USB hard drives (enclosure with HD preinstalled by factory come already prepartionined, preinitialized and preformatted. You simply plug and go.

In your situation, you took a SSD which was meant for being installed internally in a PC and married it into a separate external USB drive case.

The drive case does not initialize the drive, does not partition the drive and does not format the drive.

YOU must do all of that before the external drive will be usable and visable to Windows.

To do the steps needed you need to open DISK MANAGEMENT, your external drive will show up in there as unformated. Select that unformated drive, you should get prompt to initialize the drive, OK the initialization (failure to initialize will result in being unable to partition and format the drive).

Once initialized you are now able to select the drive and choose format, there will be a couple of prompts to follow on screen, you DO NOT have to assign a drive letter, and in the case of removable media I highly recommend NOT assigning a drive letter and allow Windows to dynamically assign the drive letter..

NOTE: If your drive is over 2 TB in size and you want the entire drive to be one partition you will also need to choose GPT partition in order to make it all one single partition.

Drives smaller than 2TB, use default of MBR as there is no advantage of GPT and if drive is connected to an older PC with older OS GPT may not be recognized.

Be also aware, SSD drives REQUIRE considerably more amperage to operate over spinning rust, this can be an issue with your USB ports being unable to support the additional current draw of a SSD in an external enclosure which does not have it's own power supply.

USB 2 and 1.1 PC ports 5V current is limited to .5A (500 ma)

USB 3 PC (SuperSpeed)ports can support about .9A (900 ma)

However in order for your USB 3 port to supply .9A your USB enclosure and connecting cable MUST also be a USB 3 connection.

USB 3 PC ports look the same as USB1.1/2, but they will be BLUE color and that port has additional connections that are difficult to see but the are there.

Not having enough port current can cause external drives to not be recognized or be intermitant.

[AllegroD]

SteveB wrote:
Look in CONTROL PANEL/ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS/COMPUTER MANAGEMENT. On the next window, under STORAGE click on disk management. The middle column will show all the drives on the computer. Assuming you can see the drive, sometimes drive letter administration doesn't work correctly and your SSD might want to use drive F (not H) but it is already in use. You can assign a new letter to the SSD. When I do this I usually use letters near the end so it doesn't get overwritten.
Obviously if it is not showing there are other problems.

^^^^^ This.
Also note in disk management that some new drives need to be 'Initialized' and 'formatted', before OS will recognize.

[Bobbo]

While not SSD's, I took the hard drives out of my last two laptops and put in enclosures to make 1TB external drives. I had to use Disk Management to assign them drive letters before they would be recognized. Since you made this drive external, I bet you have the same problem.

[monkey44]

GordonThree wrote:
Is this a bare drive SSD you put in your own enclosure, or a legit Samsung external SSD? I own several Samsung external SSD, they all arrived correctly formatted.

Maybe a counterfeit?

No counterfeit - been using this company for over ten years - takes pride in 'no grey market' products or anything not OEM. Infrequently gets a deal - but reveals it as a deal up front.

And, yes, an internal SSD I installed in the proper enclosure. Might mean the enclosure connection needs a digital bump ... will try the disk format first. Thanks ... M44

[opnspaces]

I think you already have the answer. But yes, as suggested use disk management and make sure it's formatted and assign a drive letter that is not already in use.

[GordonThree]

Is this a bare drive SSD you put in your own enclosure, or a legit Samsung external SSD? I own several Samsung external SSD, they all arrived correctly formatted.

Maybe a counterfeit?

[monkey44]

Looks like a format issue ... the newest SSDs might not auto-format like the others. My USB drive works with other Samsung SSD, so I'd think not that.

Disk Mgmt does not recognize it exactly, but a label shows as Disk 1 in Disk Mgmt window, I think. Will try format it tonight. As a part of the process it tells me it needs a drive designation, so will name it if possible. Thanks guys, more to come 🙂

And, yes, I saw that Magician program on Samsung site, but did not download it. If format does not do it, will try that.

[GordonThree]

The free tool, Samsung Magician might help. Sounds like a bad USB port?

[1492]

As mentioned, my guess is either the external SSD drives needs to be formatted or even first partitioned?

Right-mouse click on WIN 10 Start icon, and select 'Disk Management'. Check first to see if the drive shows up?

[magicbus]

You might also try a different USB slot. I have an external hard drive that only works on one USB port on my Asus. Different USB type I imagine.

Dave

[SteveB]

Look in CONTROL PANEL/ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS/COMPUTER MANAGEMENT. On the next window, under STORAGE click on disk management. The middle column will show all the drives on the computer. Assuming you can see the drive, sometimes drive letter administration doesn't work correctly and your SSD might want to use drive F (not H) but it is already in use. You can assign a new letter to the SSD. When I do this I usually use letters near the end so it doesn't get overwritten.
Obviously if it is not showing there are other problems.